Breaking Even
by Dreams-of-Ambrosia
Summary: It all ended at soon as it started, we fought restlessly against the beasts that destroyed our home, side by side, be battled until our last strength was drained out. It was a surprise to all, even to me, that I was part of the ten kids that left Lorien..
1. Disclaimer & authors notes

Hi everyone, this is the first time I publish something that I wrote and that I really like to continue, please take notice that English is not my native language so bear with me. I obviously don't own I am number 4 or its characters, I only own what I write and that's it.

If you have any suggestions I love to hear them. I would also be glad if you post you reviews in my story so I can be highly motivated and continue with my story.

See you soon!


	2. Chapter 1

It all ended at soon as it started, we fought restlessly against the beasts that destroyed our home, side by side, be battled until our last strength was drained out. It was a surprise to all, even to me, that I was part of the ten kids that left Lorien; we found out that I wasn't aware of my heritage because I didn't possess any powers. My supposed to be mother and brother weren't who they said they were. It turns out that I was protected by my cepan, Demian, who married my mother, and adopted his son as his own. I lived my life as an ordinary person, hidden from everyone, even from own kind, to protect the secret of a troubled past.

We were sacrificed to come to earth to save our race, I was a simple tool created to destroy the Mogadorians, at the end of it all I did serve my purpose, in the last battle, something within me snapped, I can't recall anything that happened, but they told me that I flown over the field and absorbed all of the other Lorien kids powers, and finally shooting them against the beasts and evaporating them into nothing, I fell to the ground and remained unconscious for four days, I had some lucid moments but I always ended up black out again, until one day suddenly I jumped out of bed and into john and Sam who were there taking care of me.

We lost so much in the battle, three years have passed since it all began, and now we must live our lives as any other person, work, go to college, and regain what's left of our lives. I still remember clearly all the times we fought and bleed for our lost families and friends, but now we have to live a life of pretending, fitting in a world unaware of what's out there, trapped here on earth without anyone else coming for us.

I have fallen in a pattern, getting up, getting dressed; going to school so I can graduate, having a part time job at a bar to keep out of suspicion of all the events that occurred in the past, and going home to the others. It was natural for us to live together since we were all that we had left of an unremembered home, six, four, sam, seven and eight. We had lost nine in battle, she was caught up in between the fire and killed by the Mogadorians without anyone that could help her; we were all trapped in battle at some point.

Sarah Hart was killed too. Four blamed himself for her dead and ended up in an uncontrollable rage, even though nor he or anybody could have saved her. I always remember that day, the beasts felt the fury of four at all its glory, tearing them to pieces one by one and battling with all the strength he had left. We won that day, but we felt like it was a lost battle. Four was never the same after that, he was quiet and severe in his actions, always looking for a next battle, I think that it was because he thought that he could revenge Sarah that way, the only way he thought that he could bring some peace in his torn up soul.

After all we been through, we were barely talking to each other, missing all the friends that we had made and lost in a few years, we are hanging by a thread, even if no one wants to admit it, and all it takes for it to break is a single wrong word from our lips, so we feel the tension build up inside each one of us, waiting to come up and break us apart.

Six took the name of Katherine Hale, or Kate, as we call her, she felt that she needed to break free from all the unspoken problems at home and try to make a life for her own, she took a job at the bar I work on, so we see each other from time to time, since I only work part time and in late hours of the night. She and sam had started an unconventional relationship, not that it was ever a normal one, they are on and off, fighting, and making up, together and apart, but still we can see that they care deeply for each other and find some sort of comfort in each other.

Sam has grown into a man, and like four, he is taller than anyone I have known, strong and build up thanks to all the fights and runs of the past, his hair is a little bit longer, but seven makes sure that we all have a proper haircut, since she decided to work at a beauty salon in town and we are mere experiments for her and her new techniques. Sam has two classes with me at school, we have become very fond of each other since we don't have any special abilities like the others, and we like to hang out when he is not with six battling his way up to her heart or I am at work trying to make amends with mine.

As I recall, I have never felt more at home like I am now, even though we have a million and one problems, we found a way to make it work, to fit our lives together and be a , well not a normal family, but a family nonetheless.

Seven, or as she is called, Alexis Pierce, is now a hairdresser, she and eight have a way of doing things differently than others, you can see that since they both took some sort of typical job where they can pass as pretty ordinary people, and she loves every minute of it, finally having some common ground where she can be free from all the persecutions and expectations that we had before. She is short, like me, and has light brown hair and clear blue eyes, pale skin and a personality that is like a ray of sun through the deepest shadows, always shiny and bubbly, the reason we are still together is because she always finds a way of lighting up the mood.

Eight, or Lucas Hale, is the older brother of six, tall, handsome, and prettily toned, with his dark brown hair and green eyes, he has all girls in town drooling for him, not that I am immune to him, but I have other things to occupy my head instead of the fine male specimen that lives in my house and sleeps next to my bed room, besides I am aware that he has a soft spot for our crazy spunk number seven. He works fixing cars at a workshop close to home, and that workshop hasn't have more cars to fix in years like it does now, since all the ladies in town want to take their cars for a checkup.

Then we have number four, now John Carter, he decided to keep the name since it was the last one assigned to him by Henrie, his cepan, and the only known by Sarah, his former love, his more guarded now than he was before, all quiet and kept for himself, I miss his strength to keep us together, his support when times needed it, and his ability to make us smile when everything seemed doomed, but we can't change what happened, no one can bring our friends back, so we have to cope with everything and move forward. There are times when I can see a glimpse in his eyes of the boy that he was before henrie and Sarah died, the softness and openness that he had before all hell broke loose, but he always hides it away, locks it in for us to see, and it kills me inside that all of this could have been different if I hadn't support Sarah when she decided to come with us, I could've been more supportive of john when he said he didn't want to risk Sarah's life, but I was a hopeless romantic that for once in her life wanted to believe that it would all work out in the end, but it didn't, and I blame myself for that.

I wasn't anything special, reddish brown hair, hazel eyes, and pale skin, just plain old Caleigh Pierce, an ordinary person in an ordinary life, until one day it all came down to me like a lightning in the middle of the night, I learned that my family was royalty back in Lorien, and I was some sort of high class garde that held the key to destroy the evil from our world but was kept in secret until the day come for us to battle.

I am the second youngest person in our little family, since little seven is the youngest. We recently celebrated seven's birthday, six and I made an attempt to make a cake, and clearly cooking isn't in our heritage cause it ended up in four and eight putting out a fire that came from the oven. Since the cake fiasco, we decided that it was better, for all of our sakes, to go out to dinner to celebrate her nineteen birthday in a little Italian restaurant mid-town. We had a nice time together, the first time that we allowed ourselves to be careless and free from all the troubled thoughts that often live in our minds, and it felt good that for once it was about us and not the world that we had to care about.

I woke up this morning with the feeling of a hand resting on my shoulder, I was laying on my belly so I had to turn around to see who was the owner of the hand and I came across to john's face, he was sitting on my bed next to me and looking at me intently. I asked him what was wrong and he got up and looked down at me.

"Alexis made breakfast and send me to wake you up since it's almost school time"

He turned to leave and took one last glance at me before closing the door for me to change and get ready for school. I walked down the stairs and tripped over my untied shoes, but right before I hit the floor I felt to pair of arms wrapping around me and preventing me from crashing, when I looked up I saw Lucas smirking at me.

"Sorry, I guess I overslept again and rushed things to be ready without noticing my shoes" he offered me a sympathetic smile and helped me to get to my feet since he was restraining me from falling.

"Don't worry yourself too much kiddo, you would end up all grumpy like six" I saw six coming out of the kitchen and slapping him in the head, and I couldn't help but to laugh at him and he just shrugged and went into the kitchen.

"Good morning sleepy head! We have pancakes and milkshake for breakfast". Alexis said happily, that girl was all smiles and sunshine, even if at times we seemed to give up on hope, she could make us smile.

I barely got a chance to bite my pancake when sam stormed in, he took me by the arm dragging me out of the door without any chance to protest or snap at him for his rude way of treating me. Once we were outside just reaching the car he let go of my arm and I shoved him hard trying to defend myself for his early outburst.

"What's your problem sam! … it's not like we don't have time to get to school and I didn't even finish my damn breakfast!" I said angrily.

He kept his mouth shut and got into the car, so I went round the car and got in it too, keeping my eyes on him I noticed he was tense, so I try to light up the mood by turning the radio on, I was still mad but I knew it had something to do with six, so I focused my sight outside my window and kept it there until he decided to talk.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to treat you like that it's just that six and I keep fighting and I can't find a common ground to settle on, I feel like somehow in the middle of all we lost something, and we can't seem to know what to do to fix it" he kept his hands tightly wrapped around the steering wheel.

"I know the feeling, we did loose so much. We lost ourselves in the battle, in the despair and the impotency of not being able to save our loved ones. But we have to make it back, to be by our own, to know who we are and accept that we can't change the past, but we can decide our future, make a leap of faith and thrust that whatever comes our way we can get pass it together". A reached out for his hand and held it in mine, giving it a little squeeze and smiling weakly at him.

"Thanks, I needed that… I just hope to make things right with six".

We went to our classes and didn't see each other for the rest of school time. I sent him a text saying that I will walk home and not to wait for me so I could get some time of my own. I walked to a little coffee shop near home and sat down at a table on the corner of the room.

When I remember all the times that I underestimated my existence and purpose in life, I laugh at myself; I am so much stronger that I thought, it took me facing my fears, my family dying and losing my home for me to realize it, I lost so much time worrying about simple things in life, like what clothes to wear or If someone will ask me to prom, or what I wanted to eat for breakfast. All that little things didn't really seem matter to me anymore, I lost everything I ever known and I am paying for it.

It hurts to know that all your life has been a lie and nothing that you were told was believable anymore. Damien took me in like his own daughter but he deprived me of my heritage and knowledge of my own people, and my future as a garde to protect my race and this world. I loved him dearly but it pains me too much to know that because I wasn't aware of what was happening and I wasn't prepared to protect him and my family from the beasts that came rushing into my home and killing all who came across them.

I went home to change my clothes since I had to go to work and it was already late. When I arrived I saw john sitting outside so I approached him and asked him what he was doing there.

"I was hoping we could talk" he got up and neared me so we were a few feet away from each other.

"I am late for work… but we can talk when I get back home" I tried to walk pass him but he grabbed my forearm and I looked up at him, his eyes were serious and his grip tightened a little more.

"You can call Vince and tell him that you are feeling sick" he offered.

I was feeling a little intimidated, since john is pretty much taller and stronger than me, and I didn't like the way he was looking down at me, it's like he was trying to read my thoughts, so I forcefully removed my arm from his grip and ran inside to get away from him. Once I got to my room I started to change my clothes, and when I just finished the door opened and I looked up from what I was doing to see john leaning against the door frame and looking defiantly at me.

"I said we need to talk" he said demandingly.

I looked at him shocked for is attitude towards me; he wasn't like that, so why was he talking to me like he owned me or something?, I felt outraged and angry at him for thinking that he could order me around like he was my boss.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You are not my father or owner so stop acting like a jerk and move! 'cause I am going to work". I pushed him so I could get outside my room into the stairs but he caught me and pushed me hard against the hall's wall, I tried to slap him but he caught my wrists and place them against the wall on either sides of my face, my breathing was hard and my face was flushed, I didn't notice the position we were in or that his face were mere inches of mine until six walked up the stairs and we both turned around to her.

"Can you tell me what the hell this is?" Six looked at us expectantly and had an amused smile in her face.

John let go of my wrist and started walking to his room without a second glance at me or six, we were left shocked, and I was certain that my face was bright as a tomato, not just because I was angry at john, I was also angry at myself for letting him manipulated me into a compromising position as we were before.

"Care to explain why you are late for work? Or better yet why if you are late for work you were playing around with four in the middle of the hall? Six gave me a smirk and waited for an answer.

"It's not what it looks like, he was acting like a jerk and I tried to slap him that's all" I shrugged and began to walk down the stairs leaving ha unsatisfied six standing in the hall.

I couldn't believe what was happening, john acted completely insane and now six was going to believe that either we were messing around or that we seriously have anger control issues.

"God that asshole!" it was infuriating, I wanted nothing less than tying him to Sam's truck and giving him a long ride through the city hearing him screaming, but I decided against it since I liked this town and I didn't want the others to think that I am a lunatic.

I went to work and kept my mind from thinking again of the little incident that had happen earlier, but when I did think of it I always got red and mad and wanted to kick somebody's behind. Once I finished my work I went outside and found Sam's truck there, but nobody in sight, when I got near it someone jumped from behind me and pocked my sides, so I squealed and jumped frightened until I saw Lucas holding his sides laughing hard at me.

"Lucas! You ass! how could you do that? I could have died from a heart attack!" I said putting my hands on my hips and glaring at him.

"I just couldn't help myself, you were standing there… and I… just had to do it". He couldn't even talk from laughing, that ass, I'll get him back somehow, but that will have to wait, my curiosity is bigger and I wanted to know what in the world he was doing here.

"Lucas, what are you doing here?" I asked frowning.

"Six send me, she said that you would need a ride home since you got late to work and Vince would make you work late for it" he gave my an apologetic smile and open the door for me to get in the car.

"Well, at least there are still gentlemen in this world after all" I said getting in the car.

Once we got home I found seven and Sam sitting in the couch watching TV, I went over and squeezed between them earning groans and complaints from both.

"Awww…Cale! Could you be more careful?" Alexis said while she tried to accommodate herself.

"You just had to be in the middle didn't you?" said Sam, while tickling my side playfully.

"Sam! Stop it… stop! ...please!" I laughed hard and tried to free myself from him unsuccessfully.

"Say you are a little spoiled baby! Say it and I let you go" he said laughing

"Ok… stop! … I am a little … spoiled … baby!" I said in between laughs. I was already crying from laughing and kept squealing like crazy when six and john went in the room and everyone fell silent.

"What are you doing? You are acting like little kids! … incredible" six said and I saw that she tried to hide a little smile that formed in her lips.

"Like I said, all grumpy like six" said Lucas, and that earned him another slap in the head by six.

"It's time for dinner, we better start making it. Cale, care to help?" Alexis asked while she got up and started walking to the kitchen.

I got up and went to the kitchen, starting to chop the necessary vegetables that Alexis claimed to needed for making dinner, when john walked in.

"I'll help too". He started taking making his way to the fridge and stated to get things out randomly.

The rest of the night was awkward for me, john passing by me, sometimes looking through his lashes at me, staring sometimes like he wanted to figure me out. It was nerve breaking and I couldn't believe that Alexis was oblivious to the tension in the room.

We had dinner and since Sam and Lucas had to do the dishes and clean today, I ran up the stairs and locked myself in my room. I knew I couldn't hide forever from john, I also knew that sooner than later my curiosity would get the best of me and I'll go asking him what was what he wanted to tell me.

I had trouble sleeping that night, tossing and turning in my bed until I finally was able to get some rest. The next morning arrived sooner than I thought and I decided against my better judgment that I needed breakfast, damn me and my inability to skip meals, so I went downstairs into the kitchen and a big plate of eggs and bacon was awaiting for me in the table with a note at its side.

"I am sorry about yesterday, I hope you can forgive my rudeness and to talk to me later, I'll wait for you at the river near the old Berry's farm… John"

I read the paper, folded it and put it in the back pocket of my jeans, then I started eating my breakfast. Since it was Saturday, I didn't have school, and I knew that both six and Alexis had to work early today, I looked around the house to see if Lucas or Sam were home, the house isn't big but it has a good size to fit the six of us, it is a light blue Victorian styled house, with white windows and a picket fence, it has five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, a study, living room, a dining room, and a big kitchen, it also has a big garden with a gazebo on the back, each of us girls have our own room, clearly six got the master bedroom, but I'm not complaining, either Alexis or mine have a good size too. Sam and john ended up sharing a room again, and Lucas, since he is the oldest, he got a room for himself alone. Since the house was empty and, as I had predicted, my curiosity got the best of me, I decided to meet john by the river.

The river was a good twenty minutes from home, I took my time to get there, and as I neared to the place where I knew john wanted me to meet him, I couldn't help but wonder what all this was about, what was he wanting to tell me that got him all aggressive an unlike him. Finally I got to the part of the river where we use to practice with our legacies before the battles, I saw him sitting in a fallen tree branch staring at the river.

"You wanted to talk to me?" I got near him while he stood up and walked close to me, we were mere feet away when he startled me by taking my hand in his.

"I am going to say this as best as I can and I hope you don't make a big deal of it… I need you to quit your job, it's not safe for you to work in a bar, and since our powers aren't back yet, and we don't know if they'll ever be back, you need to stay secured, I will not compromise the safe of anyone anymore" he was looking straight to my eyes while tightening the grip on my hand.

"What? You want me to quit my job? ... You don't think that I can take care of myself? What about six? She works in that bar too". I said annoyed removing my hand from his.

"Yes but she has more experience, she can defend herself better than anyone else, I told you not to think about it as a bad thing, it's not like we need the money, with the stones that our cepans left us and the investments that they made for us we have more than enough" he let out a frustrated sigh and thrown his hands in the air, then he turned around and grabbed me by my forearms and brought me close.

"I can't do this again… listen to me, you are going to quit and that's final, or you want me to follow you around like a bodyguard? 'cause I'll do it … I can't lose anyone else … I can't lose … please understand, we need to be careful, we don't know if all Mogadorians are dead".

"Of course they are dead! We killed them all, and your powers will be back, it's just matter of time, you can't expect me to live hidden, with fear of beasts that are dead… I can't live like that and I won't" I managed to break free and started walking fast but he yanked me back and held my face in his hands, I looked up at his eyes, eyes open up wide and mouth parted.

"Why won't you listen? Why won't you take care of yourself? … I will take care of you even if you don't want me to… even if I have to lock you away" his breath was hot against my face and his breathing was hard, as was mine, I was so caught up with what was happening and the confusion that he was causing me, his face come even closer and before I even knew what was happening he brought his lips to mine and kissed me hard, it was filled with despair and longing. We stopped because we suddenly felt the need for air, he leaned his forehead in mine both of us panting for air, I look up into his eyes and then it all came crashing down on me, I pushed myself out of his embrace, somehow in the middle of all his hands had made their way around my waist and gripped me tightly against his body. I stared at him disbelievingly, my face red, my breathing hard, and my lips swollen, he was also like this, and it formed a lump in my throat, I took a few steps back and turned around, running back home with all that I was worth.


End file.
